Recent developements in Higher Education in France : towards new opportunities to collaborate

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Recent developements in Higher Education in
France towards new opportunities to collaborate

• Patricia Pol
• Vice President Université Paris-Est
• Bologna expert

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Outline of the presentation

• The French context facts and figures
• II. The French reforms
• an answer to the European and international
  context of competition
• III. The French reforms
• a new framework to give opportunities for
  cooperation policies

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• I. The French context
• Facts and figures

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• Stabilisation of the student population since
  2002
• 2,25 M students in 2006 ( 1,1M in 1980- 1,7 in
  1990, 2,1 in 2000)
• 12 foreign student (8 in 1998)
• Moderate growth of the enrollment rates in HE but
  willingness to increase it
• - after the  baccalauréat  at 18 59 (success
  rate of the bac 70 in 2006)
• 41 (18-25 years) graduated from HE
• 35 (25-35 years) / 50 in Canada, 40 US
• 15 (55-65 years) / 15 Canada, 30 US

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• Low public investment in HE and research
• (lower than in the secondary sector, under the
  European and OECD average)
• - Public budget for HE 15,8 billions euros
  Harvard 12 billions dollars
• - The average public expenditure /student/year in
  a Public university 7210 euros , in the best
   engineering schools  Polytechnique gt 20 000
  euros

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A great diversity of institutions

• Mass and research Universities (86) 67
  students
• No selection at the entry (except for medical and
  technological studies-IUT), low fees (200 -300
  euros), high failure rates for the BA level (30)
• 4 institutions in the top 100 Shanghaï ranking,
  22 in the top 500
• Prepa classes and Grandes écoles  élite
  schools  (lt 10)
• High technicial schools (BTS) 13
• Specialised schools art, medico-social 10
• Selection, different levels of fees

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A significant investment in international policies

• Mobility
• France is the third or fourth country for
  incoming mobile students after the United States,
  the UK and Germany 13 of foreign students in
  the universities but only 20 of Europeans
• A significant national grant policy (100 M euros
  - BGF (bourses du gouvernement français))
• Second and balanced Erasmus country, a very good
  position in Eramus Mundus or in the 7th FP

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Trends V, EUA, May 2007
Trends V, EUA, 2007
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• The difficult definition and implementation of
  international policies
• Compulsory in the  contracts  with the Ministry
  from a  volet international  to an
  integration in the whole policiy
• But an unbalanced investment in the international
  process

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II. The French reforms An answer to the
European and international context of competition
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• A very strong incentive the Bologna process

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The main steps till 2010
2009Leuven
2005 Europass
2000 Lisbonne
L M D
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Autonomy is a long processmany reforms since 40
years

• The 1968 act (loi Faure)
• Universities become  autonomous  Scientific and
  Cultural Public Insitutions
• The 1984 act (loi Savary)
• Scientific, Cultural and Profesional Public
  Insitutions with more autonomy
• The LMD reform (2002) more academic autonomy
• The research law (2006) new facilities to
  create consortia (pôles) connecting HE and
  research
• (PRES, RTRA, RTRS), a new evaluation agency
  (AERES)

L M D
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The Pecresse act LRU (August 2007)  Freedom
and responsabilities  for universities A
significative reform for the universities
towards more market
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Still a high commitment in strong values

• Equity  égalité des chances 
• No selection at the entry of the university for
  the BA and the master level
• Low fees (including for international students)
• National degrees
• Democratic decision processes

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More freedom

• With the Ministry more decentralisation
• The increasing role of the  contract policy 
• Within the internal decision process
• Still democratic (election of the president, the
  deans, a more restricted administration board)
• But more power for the Presidents
• In terms of management
• Human resource, financial management

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New responsabilities, more accountability

• Two new missions
• Participate in the European Higher Education and
  Research area
• Student guidance and employability
•  Orientation active et insertion
  professionnelle 
• Collect more private resources
• Through private foundations for instance, private
  contracts
• Manage the public funds through a global budget
• ? Necessity to define a strategic plan, develop a
  quality culture and assess the results

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• III. The French reforms
• New opportunities to cooperate at a national,
  European and international level

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The  PRES  new forms of cooperation at a
national level

• Pôles de recherche et denseignement supérieur
• Universities écoles together to be more lisible
  and more attractive by coordinating their
  academic and scientific policies
• A strong involment of the Regions
• From 9. to 15 in 2008
• Université européenne de Bretagne, Université de
  Lyon, de Bordeaux, de Marseille, Nancy, Toulouse,
  Universud, Paris-Tech, Paris-Est

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The second phase of the LMD reform be more
European or international ?

• More European
• - Aiming at a good use of the academic
  recognition tools to increase the lisibility of
  the curricula
• ECTS, student workload, learning outcomes and
  competences,
• Diploma supplement and the professional
  qualification document (RNCP, Répertoire national
  des certifications professionnelles)

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• Developing new curricula
• In English (see the Campus France catalogue) to
  attract more Finnish!
• Specific funds for Joint masters (Germany, Italy,
  Tcheque Republic? Greece), co-tutelle thesis,
  European doctorate schools
• Invited professors

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• Investing more in the participation in the
  European programmes through the PRES and with the
  Regions
• Life long learning and Erasmus
• 7 th Framework programme
• Europaid (Alfa, Tempus, Edulink)
• ? By offering better services to answer the
  tenders and manage the contracts

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• But still more international
• - By promoting the Euro- LMD reform abroad (North
  and west Africa)
• By exporting more programmes outside Europe
   délocalisation 
• By attracting more students from the emerging
  countries
• ? But a strong willingness to attract more
  European at Master and doctorate levels

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Conclusion

• The European Higher Education area is a reality
  the Bologna process remains very original in the
  world
• Within this context, the French system has moved
  a lot to become more competitive and more global
• But the tradition of cooperation in research as
  well as in training programmes should be a
  competitive advantage and European networks
  become an even stronger challenge than ever